Google Ventures Puts $258M Into Uber, Its Largest Deal Ever

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A certificate unearthed by AllThingsD today shows that Uber has closed $361.2 million in its latest round. It’s unknown why TPG, which picked up 775,092 shares, paid a lower per-share price than the other participants. The late-stage investor plunked down a total of $88.4 million in Uber. Existing investor Benchmark put in another $15 million in this round.

The total Uber raise can be calculated by combining the shared value of Uber’s new Series C-1 and Series C-2 stock. The 1,913,782 C-1 shares are worth $142.54 each, and the 775,092 C-2 shares are worth $114.032 each. Multiply the per-share value of each C class by the number of shares, and you come to a total value of $361.2 million. C-2 investor TPG got an Uber board seat, according to the term sheet.

What is most interesting about this raise, however, isn’t evident in this filing. According to the document, the black-car on-demand service has raised $103.4 million from TPG, Benchmark and someone who picked up another 1.8 million shares. We and Kara Swisher have both confirmed that Google Ventures is the largest investor in the round, pumping $257.79 million into the car service. The round values Uber at around $3.4 billion pre-money and $3.76 billion post.

The investment was led by Google Ventures General Partner David Krane. Despite it being a later-stage investment, it was not a Google Capital deal, mainly because of the heavy Google Ventures involvement in sourcing and negotiating, we hear. The $258 million is an 86 percent chunk of Google Ventures’ $300 million dollar a year fund, and it’s unclear whether the firm will continue to make such sizable investments.

As both Google Ventures and Google Capital come out of Google’s balance sheet, this is purely a matter of semantics, and logo. We’ve also confirmed, like Swisher reported, that a meeting with Google CEO Larry Page sealed the deal — wherein Page outlined how Google’s resources could bolster Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick‘s grand plan to offer everything via iPhone.

On-demand car services have been stockpiling moola this year. Lyft, a company that competes with Uber, recently raised a $60 million C round from Andreessen Horowitz and others. Hailo raised a total of $50 million from Richard Branson even. Uber itself has expanded outside of its original black-car service to both taxi and ride-sharing options, growing its footprint by becoming more accessible to users from all walks of life. Interestingly enough, Google Ventures is an early-stage investor in Uber competitor SideCar, but because Uber is focusing on being everybody’s private space elevator and self-driving cab*, we guess this isn’t a conflict.

As many have pointed out, this raise is massive — Google Ventures’ largest deal ever — giving Uber much latitude to grow and prepare itself for an IPO. Given the scale of the cash injection, the company might not have to raise another series round before going public, though a bridge round isn’t inconceivable.

In the race to get you around cities with only a smartphone and a saved credit-card number, the major players now have all the fuel they need — with one having the most.

*Joke

Update: While we originally reported that Kevin Rose brought the deal in, another source has tipped us to say that Rose had no involvement. And both Google and Uber have since confirmed the investment and followed up with the information that GP David Krane, not co-founder David Drummond led the round. Drummond has joined the Uber board, as Dan Primack reports, along with TPG Capital co-founder David Bonderman.

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OverviewUber, a San Francisco-based technology startup, is innovating at the intersection of lifestyle and logistics. Uber connects riders with safe, reliable, convenient transportation providers at a variety of price-points in cities around the world.